MOTM: "Solo Con Tu Pareja" or 'Only with your Partner' (1991)

While the feature-length debut of director Alfonso Cuaron could be seen merely as a showcase for the tenderly sultry Claudia Ramirez—known in Mexico largely for her early telenovela roles—“Love in the Time of Hysteria” (the English release title) revives the romantic melodrama in ways that haven’t been seen north of the Rio Grande for some time. 

Because at its heart, this movie is a dark comedy. More a spoof of love sickness than a glorification of it.

Review: "Management"

Unrequited love.

 I do not wish to understate my degree of bias in the writing of this review so bear with me here…

…because one might argue that Stephen Belber’s directorial debut is just another run-of-the-mill rom-com; ready and willing to join the rest of last year’s valentine’s detritus on the opposite bank of Styx. And in a lot of ways it is. Yet that doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t bring anything to the table.

We start things off with Mike (Zahn), a lonely night manager working at a ma-and-pa motel in Arizona. Suddenly he’s graced with the presence of a tightly-wound travelling saleswoman named Sue (Aniston) and it proves to be a game-changer in his humdrum life. After a casual fling in a laundry room and a trip back to home in Maryland, Sue of course assumes things will resume their normal pace. That is until Mike, hopelessly and awkwardly infatuated, follows her.